I talked to Mitchell Levy, who runs a company focused on creating books to help various businesspeople create credibility as “thought leaders”/experts in their field. Although an unusual interview for me, when Mitchell’s people approached me it occurred to me that he might have some interesting things to say about the divide between how other […]

Ryan Fitzpatrick and I co-created the #95books reading challenge (www.95books.com) and throughout 2019 we are going to do regular podcasts where we discuss the best of the books we’ve read so far. We also plan to discuss at least one book we’ve both read and today that book is Refuse: CanLit in Ruins (eds. Hannah […]

Beginning writers often worry about ideas. The question “Where do you get your ideas?” has become a cliché, a question writers hate to answer, and the reason everyone hates it so much is this: non-beginning writers know that “getting ideas” is the easiest thing about writing. The difficulty, if you write regularly, is not getting […]

New Boy is a novel by Tracy Chevalier that follows the playground love story of two sixth-graders: a black Ghanaian boy, Osei, and a white American girl, Dee. Although set in a 1970s Washington suburb, the story is based on William Shakespeare’s play, Othello (as part of the Hogarth Shakespeare project, which sees bestselling novelists retell Shakespeare’s […]

One of my earliest rejection letters, from age 22. This rejection letter reshaped my entire thought process around rejection and in retrospect was foundational in my career. Let me walk you through how it blew my young mind and made me rethink how I would view rejections forever. Most writers would do well to reframe […]

Since I read #95books every year, and write screenplays, people often ask me what screenwriting books I recommend. This page archives my top recommendations. I will update this page regularly to reflect my reading around the topic. Sign up below and I will email you free format samples so you can see the basic differences […]

No good name for experimental art exists. Many object to the scientistic experimental, claiming either that science has a capitalistic classism or art should not be reduced to a form of knowledge-production. Less grandly but more eloquently, filmmaker Guy Maddin once (in conversation) objected that it annoyed him when people called his work experimental, because he wasn’t experimenting, […]

Recently, I was asked to watch and give feedback on a cut of a short film called LOVE SONG by its co-creators Michael Sanders (director, photographer, kingpin of Electric Monk Media) and GMB Chomichuk (writer/illustrator, graphic novelist). We were joined by composer Jesse Hamel, who created the soundtrack for the film. Michael also owed me […]

As a writer, what matters more than talent, even more than hard work, is your mindset. (You need all three; in order of importance it goes mindset, hard work, talent.) Professionals can smell amateurs coming at them from a hundred miles away. Let’s look closely, very closely, at the simplest example of how this plays […]

The #95books reading challenge is simple: commit to reading 95 books over 12 months. I offer a free ebook called You Can Read #95books This Year that you can download through this link, which offers my best tips to help you read more. (Even if you feel like #95books is overkill, you can still use those […]

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Disclosure of Material Connection

Some of the links on this website are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Also, most books reviewed have been provided free of charge by the publishers, which doesn’t affect my opinion. Thanks for your support.